(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a production system and a production method using a noncontact IC tag.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, though manufacturers are required to produce a variety of products due to diversification of values among consumers, production of plural kinds of products deteriorates an operating rate of a production line. Therefore, under current circumstances that requires cost reduction in various fields such as manufacturing and services, the manufacturers cannot easily pursue production of multiple kinds of products.
As a prior art to resolve the above problem, there is an invention called “Production method for plural types of products” (Refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. S56-114650 as an example). Aiming at producing plural types of products easily, this prior art suggests to group products by those having the same combination of processes and the same processing order, provide a storage unit for controlling a work in process (a partly-finished item) by each group between the processes, and produce plural kinds of products through the storage unit.
However, in the conventional production methods, since the products are grouped by those having the same combination of processes and the same processing order, a group step must be added. Also, because production is performed by each group, a step for storing each work in process must be added as well between the processes. Because producing plural kinds of products costs more than producing a single kind of products, the manufacturers cannot easily produce plural kinds of products.
Besides, in the conventional production method, plural kinds of products are supposed to be produced by changing a pattern of the combination of processes, so that it cannot cope with a situation when contents of the processes need to be changed for each product. To be more specific, in the conventional production methods, though it is possible to produce a product X produced through processes A→B→C and a product Y produced through processes A→C→B at the same time, it is not possible to produce the product X produced through processes A→B→C and a product Z produced through processes A→E→C at the same time. These are based on a production management idea, which presets a production condition at a production device side and produces products that are met with the preset condition.